


Anastasis

by taeku



Series: Epiphaneia [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Angst, Blood Drinking, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Graphic Description, M/M, Mention of Death, Mention of sex, Resurrection, Rituals, Stabbing, Vampires, Witch Curses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:34:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27713459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taeku/pseuds/taeku
Summary: Closing his eyes, Chenle lets Jaemin kiss him again, this time sweeter, lingering, and he hopes the screams he hears outside aren’t the one he’ll hear from someone he loves again.
Relationships: Na Jaemin/Zhong Chen Le
Series: Epiphaneia [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1908391
Comments: 5
Kudos: 17





	Anastasis

**Author's Note:**

> here i am with this monster, babies!  
> hope this side of the universe and the slow path of the plot is at y'all taste !  
> this is quite darker than the first part, so please read carefully??? i guess  
> anyways hope you'll like it as much as i do ~  
> go see the end notes for more warnings, but careful, spoilers! 
> 
> Anastasis [ancient Greek]: rising or raising up, again. In Byzantine art, the Harrowing of Hell.

_The world is ending_

_Come and join us_

_At the fall_

_To death, to death, to death you go_

-

Chenle is swimming in the forest’s lac when he hears It. 

It’s subtill, just the rustling of leaves, the silence of birds, the rush of their wings. Chenle doesn’t turn around right away, preferring taking his time to compose himself. Slowly, he swims toward the shores, eyes his clothes he left near his horse, a pack of messy shorts and shirts. 

Chenle knows he won't have time to get dressed, and he knows he can’t let his clothes out here. They would be used against him, lead It to him and the coven, allowing It a passage he’s been sure to close for most of his life. _This_ is the last thing that needs to happen. Not looking back, he gets out of the water, dripping wet, hair messily falling in front of his eyes. Three seconds, is all he has. Three seconds to get to his horse, burn his clothes, and run away. 

He doesn’t have these three seconds. In fact, he has none. 

As soon as his skin is out, on display for the world to see, time speeds up. It speeds up in a way Chenle didn’t prepare himself to, and he almost fails escaping. Almost. He trips. Falls on the ground, grass in between his toes and fingers. And he sees It. He sees where It is, how It comes to him, Its speed. What It holds in Its hands. Taking a deep breath, Chenle looks up at his clothes, murmuring words, watching as the fire begins.

His horse startles then, head looking around, ears rapidly moving. Chenle calls out to it, a pleading in his voice. Getting on his feet as his horse turns to him, Chenle doesn’t dare spare a glance back again, too scared of what he could see. The first arrow sings in his ears as he starts running, missing his shoulder from a millimetre.

Restraining a weak cry in his throat, Chenle pushes himself to go faster. He gets to jump on his horse’s back just as the second arrow flies its way to his chest. A bird takes the shot, moving in front of him. Chenle watches, vivid, as the animal falls on the ground, blood dripping from the wound. Looking up at It, Chenle growls, anger and sadness mixed in his chest, making his eyes sparkle a vivid red.

But he can’t fight It, not this. So he makes his horse turn, has it galloping out of the shores, into the trees he knows would allow him to gain some time. And as he runs away, looking for the safety of his coven, Chenle hates himself for going out when he shouldn’t. Knows he _can’t._

The first person to see him, when he enters the coven’s gates, is Irene. Looking up from the flowers she was taking care of, she gasps, watching as Chenle’s horse makes an abrupt stop in the middle of the courtyard. Chenle shivers, the cold air hitting his naked body like glass. Stepping away from his horse, Chenle tries to walk toward the entrance door, but his legs give up under his weight.

Why is he so weak, he doesn’t know. All he’s aware of, at the moment, is his need for warmness, his need for his potion, his need for Doyoung. Irene catches him as his knees break against the ground, making him moan out in pain.

“I’ve got you” he hears Irene say, her arms circling his waist, helping him get back on his feet. Chenle’s vision gets blurry, then, from tears or dizziness, he doesn’t have the strength to differentiate. The pain in his chest only gets worse when they enter the house, like needles perforating his lungs, making it hard for him to breath.

“Doyoung” he whines out, when Irene takes the way to the infirmary “Doyoung, only Doyoung”

“The infirmary is closer” the other witch says, glancing at him with worried eyes, not slowing her steps. Chenle’s world is fuzzy, colourless and painful, right now, but he’ll do whatever it takes to get Doyoung to him. Even if it means screaming in pain looking for him.

“No” Chenle whispers, trying to push his weight down, slowing Irene in her steps. He lets himself fall on the ground, the cold of it making him shiver weakly. He turns his eyes to Irene, red plastered in them, like a living fire, burning his pupils, making him blink, bloody tears running down his cheeks.

Chenle doesn’t know what’s happening to him. Doesn’t know why it’s so painful, suddenly, to breath, walk, blink. Why is it so painful to live, he thinks, as his eyes close.

“Chenle?” he hears Irene’s voice call out to him “Stay with me Chenle. Stay with me”

Chenle’s body and mind don’t seem to listen, as he feels himself drifting somewhere between unconsciousness and lights. It feels good, though, in a weird kind of way, and Chenle isn’t sure he wants to fight it.

“Irene?” another voice shoots from far away, it seems. Why does it sound so far away? “What’s going on with you?” And then, urgent, so, so urgent “Chenle?” and “Chenle what happened?”, “Chenle, love, look at me”.

Chenle knows that voice. He does yet he can’t put a name on it. What does it look like, he wonders, tears still falling down his eyes, the burn of it no longer bothering him. It’s, nice, actually, the warmness he’s feeling. It’s like home. Entering the comfiness of a living room, sitting down near a fire and drinking a cup of hot chocolate. Yes, Chenle smiles, yes, this is home. The fire is here to protect him.

“He’s burning” Irene says “Jeamin, his body’s burning!”

His mind breaks. Silence surrounds him, making him float, falling through clouds and sunshine. Everything is soft, when he reaches his hand forward, caressing the moving dust, the light reflecting a deep pink inside of it. It’s when he sees it. The fire on his skin, eating it, turning it brown then clean again.

 _Just like a snake,_ a voice says, to his left. _Renewal._

Chenle lets the fire take his skin away, safely. He should be scared, he tells himself. He should fear the fire burning his body to ashes, but it feels _right_. Feels like getting a thorn out of your finger, like taking your first clean inhale after a cold. And when Chenle opens his eyes, for real this time, he sees colors. He sees the white of the walls, the brown of the doors, the black of Irene’s hair falling against his shoulder.

He’s not in pain anymore.

Blinking, he looks around. The corridor is empty, safe from the three of them, on the ground. Chenle feels light, a new kind of energy running through his veins. Slowly, he moves his arms, pushing himself up on his elbows. Jaemin is looking at him with shaky lips and fear in his eyes and Chenle stares right back. He tries to be reassuring, opens his mouth to tell him he’s fine, but his mouth is too dry.

He tries to swallow, but he doesn’t have enough saliva. Jeamin gets up then, eyes glittering with unleashed tears. Chenle follows the movement, tries to get up, too, but Irene forces him back down. And so Jaemin turns his back to him, shoulders rigid, hands into fists, and walks away. Chenle tries to call after him, but nothing gets out of his mouth other than a week squeal.

It’s pointless to try to speak. So Chenle turns his attention to Irene, who looks at him with the same fear he saw in Jaemin’s eyes.

“Let’s walk you to the infirmary, alright?” Irene speaks, slowly getting up.

Chenle nods, not feeling desperate anymore, and lets Irene help him walk. It takes more time than normal, and Chenle gets irritated by his lack of energy, because he feels fuelled like never before, yet his body refuses to respond to him entirely. He comes to the conclusion that the energy he feels isn’t his, not completely, and that his body isn’t capable of using it the way he wants to.

When they walk into the infirmary, no one is there except for a frog, on the desk situated at the corner of the room. Its golden eyes follow them as Irene pushes Chenle into a small bed, careful not to hurt him. Chenle doesn’t feel like he’s body is going to break, but what happened to him is new, so very new, and he doesn’t know how it affected him, truly.

“I’ll get you some clothes” Irene says after pulling the covers up Chenle’s chin “I won’t take long”.

Silence settles then, Irene steps fainting in the distance. The frog is still staring at Chenle, and Chenle stares at it right back before the animal blinks, his eyes changing colors. It turns a bright white, almost translucid and Chenle feels cold. The creature jumps on the ground, sloppily moving towards Chenle’s bed, but ignores it in favor of standing in front of the window, its mouth wide open in a silent scream.

“It’s angry at you” Chenle hears behind him, and snaps his head around.

Doyoung is standing at the doorsteps, looking at him with tired eyes. Chenle blinks at him before turning to the frog again. When he looks out, through the window and the fountain, he sees It. Standing in front of the gates, Its long arms falling down to Its knees, Its slender body moving with the speed of the wind, like grass. He sees It standing, waiting for Chenle to grow weak again, for the barrier to break.

Chenle sees as Its head moves, up, up, up, until Its mouth is wide open, letting out a scream only for Chenle to hear.

“I can feel It” Chenle says under his breath, eyes fixed on the figure “In my veins”

Turning to Doyoung, he tries to breath calmly, but the shivering of his body makes it difficult.

“It sings to me in my sleep, telling me things”

“Like what?” Doyoung wonders, stepping closer, a small flask in hands. Chenle takes it, careful, watches as the green liquid dances with the motion before swallowing it down in one go.

“I don’t know” he answers, letting the potion fill his veins, making him relax “It speaks in a language I don’t understand”

Doyoung hums, eyes still on him, face neutral.

“It’s getting closer” Chenle whispers, fingers tight around the flask, and he wants _something_. Something he can’t name, something he’s not even sure he feels anymore and it irritates him, being this weak, this helpless.

“I’ve noticed” Doyoung says, just as soft “I’m doing everything I can to keep it out, but Chenle” he continues, getting closer “It’s becoming stronger”

Chenle knows. God, Chenle knows and it scares him more and more every day. The idea of it getting into the coven, getting to him and taking him away, like it did to people he loved before. It wakes him up, at night, in cold sweat and ravaged breathes he tries to keep low in order not to wake Jaemin up. It strangles him when he wakes up in the morning and sees It still there, waiting for him.

“It means the time has come to stop the game” Chenle says, boring his eyes into Doyoung’s, watching as the meaning of his words resonates in Doyoung’s mind. Doyoung, who tenses his jaw and looks out the window, into the nothingness Chenle knows he sees.

“I can’t and I don’t want to fight it anymore, Doyoung”

Something in Doyoung’s eyes breaks, but Chenle pretends he doesn’t see it. Instead, he looks out the window one last time before his mind drifts into unconsciousness again.

-

_Show us how fast you can run, little one_

_Show us how strong your powers are_

_Show us, little one, if the blood in your veins has the same color as your ancestors’_

-

Rain is falling today, and a long storm is coming.

Chenle is sitting at the back of the library, an old book half open on his laps, but his attention is not on the words. It’s on the way his back hurts, the way his legs can barely support him in the morning, the way his hair starts falling down, bit by bit.

When it first happened, two days after he was attacked, Chenle thought he was dying. For good this time. But Doyoung came to him, gave him a potion, a different one than what he usually takes, and made him follow him into that same library. Went to the very back, took a book out of the top shelf, hidden inside a bigger one covered in spiderweb, and gave it to him.

“It’ll help you understand” Doyoung had simply said, and Chenle understood. Took the book in hands and hid for two days, reading, and reading, and re-reading the words. He read until it made sense, until the fear in his chest flattened into abrogation and tears fell down his cheeks.

So he’s back here again, a week later, reading the book for the thousandth time. It brings him a weird feeling of comfort, of stability. Because Chenle knows words don’t lie and so what’s writing in between these pages is a future he should expect, and not be afraid of anymore. At least not as much.

Footsteps make their way to him and Chenle turns his head towards the noise. Jeamin is walking toward him, shoulders rigid but a big smile on his face and Chenle almost breaks down. He hasn’t seen Jaemin in days, not ever since his body burned down. It hurt Chenle, not being able to be with him like they usually are, and he didn’t understand why Jaemin was hidden from him.

Jaemin wasn’t there for Chenle, and it pushed something ugly up Chenle’s chest, but he was quick to push it back down. He couldn’t think like this of his boyfriend, not after everything he did for him ever since they knew each other. Jaemin got scared, Chenle understood that. Jaemin was scared, they both were, and it couldn’t be held against him. Not like that.

Yet Chenle’s worried. Even more so now that he had some new answers to his troubles. He’s worried Jaemin won’t understand, or worse, won’t accept the reality of things. A reality they both fought against so many times. He closes the book, pushes it away, behind his back and tries to get up. He feels his legs trembling, too weak to allow him to stand up, and his heart stops for a second. He looks at Jaemin with big eyes, tries to hide his pain the best he can.

But it’s no use, he comes to the conclusion, because Jaemin doesn’t see him. Not properly. It feels like Jaemin’s going to walk through him, like he would dust, and it does something weird to Chenle’s heart. Makes him wonder if he’s really there, after all, if the fire took him while he was asleep. But Jaemin doesn’t walk pass him. Instead grabs his face in his hands and crashes his lips into his. The kiss is messy and brutal and Chenle doesn’t kiss Jaemin back.

Jaemin doesn’t seem to notice it, either. Keeps his lips on Chenle’s for a couple more seconds before he steps back, just a bit, enough so they can lock eyes.

“Chenle” Jaemin says, eyes frantic, hands squeezing his shoulders painfully “I found it”.

He laughs then, stepping closer, entering Chenle’s space again, forcing him to focus on one eye at the time.

“I found it” Jaemin repeats “We’re getting closer”

Chenle is lost. By his thoughts and Jaemin’s words echoing in his mind, by what happened to him at the lack and what’s waiting for him if he gets out of the coven. Chenle is lost and needs a support he thought Jaemin would give him but doesn’t, in the end. Chenle blinks, tries to get his eyes to focus on Jaemin but he’s too close for comfort.

Shaking his head, Chenle takes a step back, falling back into the window he was sitting by before Jaemin came. Feels the old book crack under his weigh. He doesn’t make a move, heart palpitating, head burning. If Jaemin is like this, _different_ , Chenle can’t let him know. And it is weird, to see his boyfriend come to him like this after days, when the last thing he saw of him was his back fading in the distance.

What was Jaemin up to? What did he do during those days, days Chenle desperately needed him close? There’s a lot of questions turning in his mind, right now, but he doesn’t have the energy to voice them, not right away. He settles for one, then, eyes blinking and legs shaking.

“What are you talking about?” his voice is weaker than usual, and he hates it. Hates how sleep doesn’t seem to give him rest nor peace of mind. Yet again, Jaemin doesn’t seem to notice it.

“The book, Chenle. Your freedom”

There a silence, then, piercing into the room. A silence so thick Chenle feels like drowning, suddenly. Swallowing, he lets go of a breath he didn’t know he was holding, and stares. Stares and stares at Jaemin, smiling in front of him, and wants to cry. This is too confusing, Chenle thinks, the weight of the book under him screaming at him. It feels like a dream, something mean his ancestors would throw at him for being so weak and needy.

Because it doesn’t make sense that Jaemin would find what they’ve been looking for for years now. It doesn’t make sense that it would reveal itself at the last moment, when Chenle’s hope had disappear almost completely. It doesn’t make sense that the solution he was so desperate for would show up when the journal he was reading a moment ago told him how his death would be like.

“How..?” he whispers, eyes unfocused, entire body trembling now.

“It doesn’t matter how” Jaemin says, moving his head “What does matter is that I know where it is and how to use it”

Kissing him again, almost desperate, almost crazy, Jaemin laughs to himself. Chenle can feel his teeth against his lips and the warm of his breath on his chin. Their bodies are flushed together, their chests moving in unison and all Chenle can think about is the scent of wisteria surrounding him and Jaemin’s eyes.

“Chenle” Jaemin says, in between kisses “I can free you. Finally, I can free you”

His lips on his. His hands on him. His scent in him. Chenle feels light, almost sleepy, and he lets the feeling enter him completely. Lets Jaemin take over him like a doll and dispose of him like he wishes. Because he’s tired of carrying himself all the time, because it’s so much more easier to have someone be you, sometimes. Chenle lets Jaemin kiss him on his lips, lets him travel to his jaw and neck. He lets him lift him up, hands on the back of his thighs and pushing against him more.

“Where?” he asks, when he finds his breath again, thoughts a bit clearer.

“The very last information I could find of it is from a book written back in 1416” Jaemin answers, lips still on Chenle’s neck, playing with the tender skin. “A poetry book, speaking about the child of the forest”

Jaemin keeps talking, and kissing, and talking again, but Chenle can’t really hear him. It sings in his ears again, blocks the world around him. Staring at the ceiling above him, Chenle tries to focus on Jaemin’s words, the sound of his voice. Witches, spells, blood, is all Chenle gets out of this and he’s tired. So, so tired.

“What are you saying?” he asks, tongue heavy and neck hurting from being turned around.

Jaemin creates some distance then, and Chenle feels like he can breathe again. Like air suddenly burst into his lungs, allowing him to see the world around him again. Jaemin’s eyes are frantic, still, his lips red from kissing him, and Chenle almost doesn’t recognise him. He can see the lights in Jaemin’s blue eye, the shadows in the brown one, and Chenle doesn’t understand how two powers can manifest in someone at the same time.

Jaemin’s voice takes him out of his thoughts, making him focus again.

“We just need to get into his house” Jaemin says “Read the commands to perform the ritual, and then, _poof_ , you’re free”

Free. Chenle smiles to himself. It sounds sweet, freedom. Chenle has never known what freedom was, not even here, in the coven. Because he might be safe there, but he isn’t in the outside. Never will be. And he wishes he knew, even just for a moment, what it is like to be able to walk around the city without fear. It resonates in his mind, the words Jaemin spoke. Talking about things Chenle doesn’t understand, can’t follow. So he glances at his boyfriend, tries to calm the storm inside his chest.

“Who are you talking about?”

Chenle might be afraid to know, deep down. He might be afraid of being free, even. Because he’s lived with this cursed for his entire life. It’s grounding, reassuring, feeling like home. Nothingness might scare him more than the demon walking behind his back. What would it be like, to be at peace? Hear nothing? Feel no fear at all? It’s so foreign it scares him as much as it calls for him, and Chenle is thorn between two worlds.

“Jaehyun” Jaemin says, like it’s an evidence. And when Chenle looks at him like he has two heads, Jaemin smiles, shaking his head.

“Do you know any other witch with a connection to the forest that strong? Or did you hear anyone talking about a witch like this?”

Chenle hasn’t. He read about a child of the sky, once, in one of his mother’s books, but it was a tale from another time. What’s written in the old books can’t always be trusted, even if, most of the time, truth is hiding inside the papers. It is true that Jaehyung has a special bond with the forest, anyone can see it. But that doesn’t prove anything. Not to him, nor his dying hopes.

“Those are just speculations, Jaemin” he says, voice strangely steady for someone with so little strength left in his body. Chenle is tired, and it’s not the kind of tiredness that can be fixed with sleep. It’s the kind of tiredness that breaks you in half with what seems like no hopes to bring the pieces back together. Chenle feels like he’s been broken ever since he turned into fire. Like the energy he felt right after was just the last call, the last chance, the sign that his life was cutting short.

“It’s time we stop, now, ok?” he whispers, eyes glued to Jaemin’s, trying so hard to make him understand, see that he had no fight left in him. Jaemin refused to see it, again, just like last time, and Chenle isn’t sure he can do that anymore. Seeing the desperate hope in his lover’s eyes.

“I am certain that it’s him” Jaemin insists, eyes losing their movements. Blinking, he takes Chenle’s face in between his hands again, delicate, like this simple gesture could break him if he isn’t careful enough.

“Chenle, love, please trust me, yes? I’ve never failed you until now, did I?”

It’s right. Jaemin never failed Chenle, always tried his hardest to find answers Chenle had long lost interest in. Jaemin appeared in Chenle’s life like a snake, slow and soundless, making his way into his head and heart, until he found himself feed with the hope in the younger’s eyes. Maybe it was foolish of him, to let Jaemin enter his family’s curse. But he couldn’t help it. And he fell in love with that hope, with what Jaemin brought in his life. He fell in love with a younger version of himself, and sometimes, he regrets it.

“Jaehyun is your key, Chenle”

Closing his eyes, Chenle lets Jaemin kiss him again, this time sweeter, lingering, and he hopes the screams he hears outside aren’t the one he’ll hear from someone he loves again.

-

The first time Chenle sees It, he’s eight years old and his mother just died.

Chenle is eight years old with no family left to turn to. He’s completely, and undeniably, alone. But he’s eight and naïve and confused as to why no one came to his mother’s funeral, except for the old lady at the end of their street. So he doesn’t understand the situation he’s in, right now.

Chenle has no tears to cry for his mother and the old lady stares at him without blinking, not even once. Chenle looks back at her, his big eyes wide open, his little hands playing with the wooden wolf his father made him when he was three, just before he died. The silence is thick, and Chenle could almost trap it in his little hands, if he wanted to.

Then the old lady takes his hand in hers and brings him back to his house, where the blood in the kitchen is still clear and smelly. They don’t stay inside for long, just enough for the old lady to pack some of Chenle’s belongings into a bag. Chenle watches as she does, hands still playing with the wolf, eyes burning from the dust all around them. When it’s time to leave, the old lady takes Chenle’s wolf out of his hands, looks at it with hate in her eyes and throws it on the ground, into the blood.

“The wolf is the reason you’re doomed, boy. Don’t show it sympathy”

Chenle doesn’t understand the meaning of this, tears finally falling down his round cheeks. Chenle loves his wolf, wants it back but can’t reach it because the old lady takes him in her arms and gets out of the house.

There’s a man standing at the gates, his dark hair perfectly styled, dark coat falling low on his figure. Chenle can’t clearly distinguish his face behind his tears, but from the moment their eyes meet, he knows the man will take care of him. The old lady pushes him on the ground when they’re close enough, and Chenle lets himself fall onto it, still crying. The man nods to the old lady and watches as she walks away, not turning back, not saying a word. The wind is bursting against Chenle’s ears, messing with his hair, but he can’t let go of the man in front of him.

He’s so tall, he thinks, taller than anyone he’s ever saw, and the magic pouring out of him by waves makes him feel like nothing in the world could hurt him, ever. The man takes a step forward after a couple of second, kneeling in front of Chenle, in the muddy grass, and the first thing Chenle thinks is that the man’s pants are going to get ruined.

“Hello Chenle” the man says. His voice is smooth and deep, calming, and Chenle’s tears dry on his cheeks. “My name is Doyoung. I was a good friend of your mother”

Chenle thinks the man - _Doyoung-_ lies, because his mother had no friends. He knows because no one would ever come into the house, nor call, nor invite them for dinner. He knows because there were never any lights in the house, the doors always locked and the windows covered with wooden plates. Chenle only saw the sunlight when his mother was sleeping during the day and he would sneak out, in their little garden.

All Chenle knew about the outside world was from the books in his room and the kitchen, where his mother would make potions. That’s how they survived, Chenle thinks, with the potions her mother would sell to other people, whether they were magical or humans. They were outcasts, Chenle understood that, but he never knew the reason why. His mother had no friends, and Chenle had no family left but her.

“Do you know what a coven is, Chenle?” Doyoung asks, and Chenle nods. He knows in theory, from the books his mother made him read to keep him busy. Because knowledge is important, even more so than running in the grass after it rained. Chenle knows a coven is like a home, a second family, and that it has rules you need to respect in order to keep the balance. It never appealed to him, because he never liked rules, never listened to them when they were introduced to him.

 _Don’t let the doors open_ , his mother would say, _Don’t let the windows without salt on them_. Rules where too restrictive for a young child like him, and he never understood what his mother was so afraid of, what she could see that he didn’t. And it frustrated him, but he loved his mother, even if she seemed out of her mind most of the time. He loved and tried to protect her the most he could, as a child, but there was nothing he could have done to save her, once it was time for her to go.

“I am in charge of one” Doyoung voices again, gentle smile on his face “And I want you to come with me, so that I can protect you”

Chenle doesn’t register the words right away, eyes attracted to something behind Doyoung. Not something, but someone, walking down the street, face pale and body dirty with dried mud. Chenle wonders who that could be, how she got so messy when even him, at eight years old, knows how to stay clean. As she walks towards them, eyes fixed on him, he feels weird.

“Who is she?” he asks, eyes looking as the woman makes her way to him, gait weak, almost limping.

Doyoung frows, turning around. “What woman?” he asks, his eyes scanning the road, looking for something he couldn’t see.

“Her” Chenle points to his right, eyes not leaving the woman “With the red dress and ponytail”

“There is no lady, Chenle” Doyoung says when he looks at him again. There is something in his eyes, something Chenle can’t read but senses as something bad. The lady is there, how would he be able to see her walking otherwise? He tells Doyoung that, describes her in details, and the man doesn’t lose time. Takes Chenle in his arms and pushes him in the car parked near them before telling the driver to take them to the coven.

“You’re under my watch now, Chenle” Doyoung says, eyes sparkling in ways Chenle never saw before. “I’ll take care of you, I promise”

And as Chenle looks back at what used to be his house, covered with graffities and spells, he sees the woman take a turn and walk after the car, still limping, eyes fixed on him.

-

“It won’t catch you” Doyoung says to him one night, two years after they met for the first time. “I won’t let it come in”

As the words get out of his mouth, he gives Chenle a wooden wolf, red from dried blood, and Chenle cries his mother’s death for the first time.

-

Hunters attack them on a Sunday morning, when Chenle goes out his way to give messages to the vampires who guarded the north side of the city, during the night.

It’s been raining for the last two days with no interruption, and Chenle knows this isn’t a good sign. It’s still pouring when he leaves the coven, kissing Jaemin goodbye, his horse’s head low. Cutting through the woods, he salutes Felix, watches as he takes place for his watch, up in the trees, his familiar perched on his shoulder. It doesn’t take long to get to the vampires, not when he knows the forest like the back of his hands.

There are two of them, hiding under the tree’s shadows, when he gets to the meeting point. Chenle doesn’t know them, as Ten only called them in a couple of days ago. Getting closer, he jumps off his horse, letting it flair the grass.

“Any activity?” he asks the vampires, stretching his hand, paper in between his fingers. The rain obscures his vision, making his hair fall in front of his eyes.

“No” one of the vampires says. She looks even paler under the darkness of the forest, her eyes scrutinizing him. “It’s calm, almost too calm”

Chenle agrees, looking around the forest. He hears no bird singing, even under the rain, cannot feel any magical activity either, and it makes him anxious. Rain never stopped magic before, not to his knowledge, and he reminds himself to talk to Doyoung about it. Once the paper in the vampire’s hands, there is nothing left for Chenle. So he gets to his horse, ready to go, when a branch cracks not far from him.

It happens in a blink of an eye, Chenle barely able to register what’s happening not even six feet away from him. It takes a heartbeat, really, for the wooden spike to pierce the female vampire’s chest, right through her heart. It takes another heartbeat for her to burst into flame, her eyes wide open, fixed on something behind Chenle’s horse.

They exchange a glance, the other vampire and him, before another spike flies towards them, piercing a shoulder this time. Chenle doesn’t waste time, jumps on his horse and doesn’t look back. He galops under the trees, heart beating, fear crippling at the back of his throat. He galops faster than he ever did, pushing his magic into his horse, making it stronger with each passing second.

It is still not enough. It’s not enough and a spike hurts his horse, stuck on his side, and they fall. Out of fear, Chenle lets go of a scream, waking the trees around him. And out of desperation, Chenle calls for the birds, lets the spell dance on his tongue and into the void, in hope of it getting anywhere. As he rolls, over and over, not hearing anything but the sound of his body breaking, Chenle can only think about one thing.

When he finally stops, hurting so badly he whines out of pure pain, he sees Jaemin. His smile, his hands, his fingers around his own. He sees Jaemin and prays that he’s safe, wherever he is right now. There’s a branch breaking somewhere around him, and Chenle knows the hunters are near. He tries to get up, forces himself to ignore the pain in his shoulder and legs, but it’s hard to breath. His vision turns blurry under the pain on his sides, and he crawls, trying to escape.

He can hear his horse crying in pain, behind him, and he wants to cry, so badly. Weak, he looks back, watches as his horse moves its legs into the void, eyes wide open, blood dripping out of his side. Chenle lets a pitiful cry escape his mouth, tears falling, heart aching. Closing his eyes, he lets go of his magic, allowing it to travel to the horse, putting it at ease before its last breath leaves its lungs. Chenle feels it, when death takes over, but he can’t cry his loss, not right now.

So he forces himself up, biting on his lips to avoid the screams getting out, and starts walking. He doesn’t know where he is, lost his direction during the fall, and so he walks towards the emptiness of the forest. He can feel the hunter’s eyes on him, like a prey, and hates the feeling of being at their mercy, hates to know they’re taking pleasure in watching him run for his life.

Preserving his magic, he looks around, trying to orientate himself, when an arrow sings in his ears. Falling on the ground, he looks back. Two figures stand there, tall and massive, and Chenle feels fear in his throat. Breath frantic, he gets up again, shaking, trying to find an escape. He can’t hide, knowing he’s too slow and too noisy for it to be effective, and that makes him want to cry out in frustration.

Rain stops him from seeing where he is or where he goes, and he calls for the birds to help him, just this once. He doesn’t stop moving, gathering his power in his palms. Another arrow flies, and doesn’t miss this time. It penetrates his calf, making him cry out and fall on the ground. There is mud everywhere around him now, and he whines, both out of pain and terror.

This isn’t how he’s supposed to go, Chenle thinks, as he crawls away, tears falling on his cheeks, before something presses against his back, plunging him into the ground. He suffocates for a couple of seconds before hands grab his hair and yank his face back, making him groan. Looking up, he sees a face covered in marks above him, a smirk nagging him, before he sees the reflection of a knife. Crying, he tries to escape, but the grip only gets tighter, and he’s trapped, unable to move.

Chenle isn’t a fighter by any means, but he’ll fight for his life, no matter what. He feels his magic in his veins, feels it pulsing in his palms and chest. Closing his eyes, he murmurs words after words, rain cleaning his face from the mud. When he opens his eyes, they’re full of magic, sparkling red dots in his pupils. Opening his mouth, he screams, his magic exploding around him, resonating in the forest, making it shiver.

The hunter flies around, his body caught into fire, impaling itself on a tree branch, a few meters away. Exhausted, blood falling down his nose, Chenle tries to take deep breath, forcing the air into his lungs but it hurts, so badly. There’s a poison in his veins, he can feel it slowly getting to his heart, and he focuses his magic into stopping it, bit by bit. Blinking, trying to see through the pouring rain, Chenle sees the second hunter run to him, knife out, eyes phosphorescent, fixed on him.

Before he can gather his magic again, something flies above him, growling. Chenle feels its power, sees the black fur shine under the rain, and follows its movements, precise, deadly. It doesn’t take long for the wolf to rip the hunter’s head off, sending it away, into the darkness of the forest. Chenle watches as the body falls on the ground, eyes wide open. Then, other wolves come into his vision, fangs out, bloodied. 

Wolves. There are wolves everywhere around him, circling him, their eyes searching deep into the trees. Chenle doesn’t understand what just happened, too confused and in pain to take the time to analyse the situation. The black wolf starts walking towards him then, its yellow eyes dark but not menacing. Chenle stares back, eyes slowly closing. The poison is strong, stronger than what his ruined body can handle, and Chenle looks at the wolf, a pleading in his eyes.

“Help me” he tries to say, but his mouth refuses to open, his blood turning cold and his skin petrifying. The last thing he sees is the wolf shifting, fur becoming skin, snout turning into a human face. Blonde hair takes over the black fur, and a human face overlooks him with hard brown eyes. If the man says something, Chenle doesn’t hear it, falling into the darkness calling out for him.

-

_There’s a figure above him, soft hair caressing his nose, and Chenle smiles. The scent of niaouli surrounds him, a bit different from his own, and he feels safe there, under the woman’s gaze._

_“Chenle, wake up darling” she whispers “Now is not your time”_

-

_Chenle opens his eyes to see trees around him, leaves lazily dancing to the wind. He doesn’t feel pain anymore. More so, he doesn’t feel anything at all. Blinking, trying to recognise his environment, Chenle wonders where he is, and how he got there. There is no sound for him to hear, or grass for him to feel. Just nothingness filled with trees._

_When he gets on his elbows, he notices movements to his left. Turning his head, he looks as a snake climbs his leg, slowly, its eyes fixated on him, and Chenle can’t move. Can’t do anything else but watch as the creature makes its way to his waist, circling it with his body._

_“Wake up” he ears again, around him, like a murmur. “Wake up, darling”_

_-_

_Lights blind him when Chenle opens his eyes again. This time, instead of trees, there are figures. Immobile, like statues, their empty eyes glued on him. But strangely, Chenle isn’t afraid. Knows that those figures are part of him, somehow, watching over his shoulders when he can’t do it himself._

_The linger of a song resonates inside of him, then, soft and barely audible at first. Chenle focuses on it, the deep notes making their way to him._

_It is found, it says._

_It is found and safe, under the watch of its mother._

_It is found and powerful, ready to guid as death takes its due._

_The child of the forest has been found by the blue blood, secrets ready to be revealed and sins set to be forgiven_

-

_“Chenle, wake up!”_

-

When he wakes up, head throbbing, Chenle doesn’t know where he is.

Slowly, blinking the fuzziness away, Chenle concentrates on himself first. Tries to see if there is any pain left in his body, if he’s intact, if his magic is still warm inside of him. It is still there, in his chest, vibrant and calm, sleeping. Taking a deep breath, Chenle then looks around.

The room he’s in right now is big, bigger than the one he shares with Jaemin at the coven. It is not decorated, but a couple of furniture are placed around, covered by white sheets. The sun is settling down, orange blurring his vision, and Chenle wonders how long he’s been unconscious, how long he’s been in this room.

Flashes of what happened to him make him wince, when they get to the surface of his mind, and he tries to remember. Tries to put sense into it. How where hunters able of getting so close to them without notice? How did they do to get through the barriers without ringing the alarms? How where they invisible, even to vampires? Chenle supposes the rain helped, but how? If it wasn’t a natural rain, witches would have been able to detect it. Chenle would have been able to tell it was part of a plan, or a trap. Yet he couldn’t.

And who were the wolves? How did they get here? _When_ did they get here? The last pack left the city years ago without looking back, tension everywhere, so why now? For what? Were they here to help them? Did they know about what was happening?

Chenle has so many questions and no one to answer them.

What he needed to do first, now that he was sure he was safe and in capacity of his body, was to get out of there, get back to the safety of his coven, back to Jaemin. Careful, he gets into a sitting position. It is warm in the room, and Chenle notices the change in his clothes. He is covered in a white shirt, baggy pants too big for him, and nothing has scent. Eyes widening, he moves his arm, smelling the crock of his elbow. And nothing. He can’t smell himself.

Heart crashing in his chest, he sniffs harder, gets his arm closer to his face, yet no scent comes to him. Blinking, he lets his arm fall to his side, mouth dry. If he can’t smell himself, that means he can’t smell powers. Other witches would be undetectable to him, and therefore his powers would only get weaker. How was that possible? When did it happen? Was it the poison?

Getting up on woozy legs, Chenle passes his hand in his hair, getting his bangs out of his eyes. When he looks at his hand, white hair falling on the ground, he knows. Throat tight and breathing hardly, Chenle knows. If the poison didn’t succeed in killing him, his curse would. Closing his eyes, swallowing the tears forming at their corners, he forces himself to take a deep breath. He’ll deal with all this later, when he’ll be in the safety of his coven.

When he gets out of the room, hands on the walls for support, he tries to look around. Get a scent, maybe, a sign that lets him know where he is and how to get out. But the corridors are empty, for the most part, except for paintings here and there. As he walks through the place, opens doors that don’t show anything else but empty rooms, Chenle starts to panic. He feels trapped, in an endless loop, running but not actually moving.

It is quick to come, the fear. He feels it at the back of his throat, almost gagging him. But he can’t give up, not like this. He’s been cursed once, he won’t let it happen twice. He’s turning at a corner when it happens. The images. And soon, he finds himself swallowed, trapped in a word that isn’t his.

_The sun is bright, reflecting on the walls, bringing warmness to the place. The corridor is made of different stones and weapons adorn the walls. The window at the end of it is wide open, allowing the chants of birds to invade the place. It is summer, and humidity is strong, yet the small wind makes it bearable. There is movement then, behind the window, and birds stop twitting._

_A beast jumps through the window, white fur covered in mud, red eyes scanning the place. The wolf walks forward slowly, like it owns the place, and maybe it does. But someone else comes in. A human, this time. A witch. They stare at each other for a time before the wolf shifts, fur retracting, paws lifting from the ground to turn into hands. Where a wolf stood, a human remains._

_And Jaehyun runs to him, tears in his eyes and smile on his lips. “Jinyoung” the witch says, falling into the werewolf opened arms. “Oh, how I missed you” Jaehyun says again before he crashes his lips to the other man’s, their bodies glued to each other. They kiss like desperate men, like they’re taking their first breath after a long time suffocating, and Chenle stands there, looking as Jaehyun, the same Jaehyun he’s been in contact with not long ago, starts to fade away._

Chenle gets back to the present with a sharp breath, but before he can put words on what he’s just seen, he’s swallowed into something else, something much darker, something that brings bill in his throat.

_It is night time, and Jaehyun is here again. Another witch is standing in front of him, long white hair up into a ponytail. They stare at each other for a time. Jaehyun looks angry, hands turned into fists at his sides. The other witch looks overconfident, a smirk at the corner of his lips, and when he speaks, it sends chills down Chenle’s back._

_“This cannot continue” the white-haired witch says, his voice threatening._

_Jaehyun seems to understand the menace right away, his eyes starting to sparkle an angry bleu. He lifts his chin up, challenging._

_“What cannot be continued, Chanyeol? Please enlighten me”_

_The witch, Chanyeol, wince angrily at Jaehyun but it is soon replaced by a look of disgust. His eyes are sparkling red, too, and Chenle can feel his magic up in his own throat._

_“You and that beast” Chanyeol says, spikes, really “I cannot bear the idea of you two together”_

_This gets to Jaehyun, it seems, as his magic growls at the words. The witch’s face is red from anger, but his body is rigid. Chenle stares at him, mouth agape, because he never thought Jaehyun could turn like this, terrifying. And Chenle is terrified, even if he knows he can’t be hurt right now. He’s terrified by what Jaehyun could do with so much magic, so much powers, so much anger._

_“We’re not doing anything wrong” Jaehyun voices, voice dangerously low “No rules forbid our races to mate”_

_“It is disgusting” Chanyeol shouts, taking a step forward “We do not accept that those beasts enter our circles”_

_Jaehyun stays still, eyes closed, and Chenle knows he’s trying his hardest to control himself. When he opens his eyes again, they’re completely covered, blue so dark it almost seems black. There are no sparkles anymore. Just shadows._

_“And I do not accept that you and your cult see the light of the sun everyday” Jaehyun speaks, shadows surrounding the place, little by little “I do not accept that you feel so comfortable that you think your sick pure blood ideology has a place in our world”_

_It is silence for a long time after this, Chanyeol staring at Jaehyun like he would a demon, before he lifts his chin, just like Jaehyun had done not long ago._

_“Time will come, Jaehyun, where you won’t be the powerful one anymore” he murmurs, smirking “Time will come where your heart will be ours to destroy and your powers turned into nothingness”_

Chenle falls on the ground, then, head throbbing, tears falling down his face, for a reason he doesn’t understand. Those are memories, he comes to realise. Jaehyun’s memories, and he shouldn’t be seeing them. He shouldn’t be witnessing such intimates part of the other witch’s life. Not like this. Getting up, he takes a few weak steps before he’s swallowed again, as if the house wanted him to see.

_Jaehyun is screaming, when Chenle gets into the memory. Jaehyun is screaming and there’s a group of white-haired witches looking down at him, chanting in a language long forgotten. Jaehyun is screaming and there’s another body in the circle. A body without a head, spiling blood._

_Chanyeol walks through the circle, a curved knife in hands. He kneels next to Jaehyun, eyes and smile vicious. “Broke it” the chanting says, “You broke it”._

_“We didn’t do anything” Jaehyun cries, weak, his body shaking “Please”_

_“Your heart is mine” Chenle hears Chanyeol say, like poison “You disrespected us, and now you’re paying the price”_

_Chenle screams, pleads for the witch to stop, but no words get out of his mouth. And so he watches as Jaehyun’s heart is ripped out of his chest, blood dripping on his body. The chanting gets stronger, Chanyeol lifting the heart in the air, mouth wide open in a silent scream._

_This cannot be happening, Chenle thinks, defeated. This cannot be real. No witch should do this kind of ritual. Something strange happens then, as if the forest was keeping the air steady, empty of everything. The chanting stops, the witches looking at each other with questions in their eyes, whispering under their capes._

_It is then that the forest starts screaming. An awful, painfully long scream from the heart of the earth. Everything gets blurry in seconds, and the last thing Chenle sees is Jaehyun’s body being swallowed by the earth._

Chenle lets his body fall down on the ground, tears freely falling down his face, into his neck. What he just witnessed, what he just saw happened to Jaehyun, it makes him want to throw up, makes him want to scream until his throat is too dry to produce any sounds. It is horrible, and disgusting, he can’t believe something like this could happen. But ancient times are different from today, and Chenle just realised just how ignorant he was. Ignorant of history and himself.

“What did you see?” he hears behind him. When he turns around, he sees Jaehyun standing in front of him, a fuming mug in hands. His eyes are gentle, his face neutral, and Chenle can’t believe the man standing in front of him had to live through this. Can’t believe he survived it.

Chenle can’t speak, doesn’t know what to say or feel or do, not after everything he learned. Can’t even look at Jaehyun, really. So he lowers his head, eyes closed, shame and hatred filling his chest.

“I’m sorry” he cries, shaking his head. “I’m so sorry”

“What are you sorry for?” Jaehyun asks again, getting closer. But Chenle moves away, still on his knees, tears uncontrollable. Was it really real, what he saw? Could a witch really survive their heart being ripped apart? Was Jaehyun really the child of the forest? His key? Thinking about all this made him dizzy, disgusted in himself. It takes him in the throat, making it hard to breath, and maybe it is better if he dies right now. Maybe Chenle should let Jaehyun kill him right this instant, as a repentance.

“I’m sorry for what we did to you” Chenle whispers, lips shaking so much it’s a miracle he hadn’t bite them yet.

Jaehyun doesn’t answer right away. He stands in front of Chenle for a long time, letting him cry out his pain in peace. When it quiets down, he slowly gets on his knees too, eyes still soft, his magic flying around them. Chenle lifts his eyes when he feels it against his cheek, watches as the blue dust circles in front of his lashes.

“This has nothing to do with you” comes Jaehyun voice, and finally, Chenle turns his eyes to him. There is no hostility in his eyes, no anger, no resentment. Chenle blinks away the last of his tears before looking at the ground again.

“But they… we…” he stars, but Jaehyun doesn’t let him finish.

“You are not your ancestors, Chenle” is what he says, a hand coming to grab at the back of Chenle’s neck, forcing him to lock eyes. Chenle looks at the sparkles in Jaehyun’s eyes, lets his magic calm him before he opens his mouth again, a question burning the tip of his tongue.

“Did you know?” he wonders “Who I was when you met me?”

Chenle didn’t even know who he was before today, and he feels stupid. It is not his fault, not really, but he should have known. He should have seen the signs in his mother’s behaviour, in the stories he would read about, in his family tree his parents tried so hard to hide from him. He should have known when the old lady told him the wolf was the reason he had to live like this. And he sees it, the beheaded body lying on the forest’s grass, knows who it was and it makes him sick to know that his family, his own blood, did this.

Jaehyun nods, answering Chenle’s question, and the younger feels tears in his eyes again. Jaehyun knew who Chenle was by just looking at him, and yet he didn’t treat him horribly. He’s been nothing but nice and warm to him, even knowing what had happened to him because of his ancestors.

He is right, in the sense that Chenle isn’t them, would never even imagine of doing something like this. But it is still his blood who hurt him, made him look as his lover was killed and his own heart taken away from him.

“A curse for a curse” Jaehyun says softly after a moment, looking out the window, at the smoke leaving the tree’s head. Something had happened while Chenle was asleep, and he wonders if it’s a bad oven, or a sign that they had won, just this little battle. Looking at Jaehyun with confused eyes, Chenle isn’t sure he understands the meaning of the other’s words.

“My mother was a powerful witch” Jaehyun specifies “Very possessive. Revengeful.”

Because his family cursed Jaehyun, his mother cursed them back. Chenle smiles to himself. How ironic, he thinks, to be cursed because of your bloodline. Knowing the source of it, the reason for his life to be so messy, doesn’t bring him any satisfaction. Chenle thought it would. Thought that if he learned why his entire family was cursed, it would allow him to find a cure. But there was no such thing, in the end. And maybe it was for the better.

“You know that only the witch who pulls a curse can break it” Jaehyun says, like he’s been reading Chenle’s mind. Chenle nods, looks out the window as a giant bird flies away with a body in in claws.

“But my mother is dead. Been for a very long time and I can’t revoke the curse, even if her blood runs in my veins” Jaehyun continues, handing the mug he had in hands all this time to Chenle. The younger takes it, but doesn’t drink it right away. Eyes stuck on the fire in the forest, rain still pouring, he wonders who’s fighting out there.

Then, because he senses something in Jaehyun’s eyes, he turns his attention to him. Eyes into eyes, the two witches stare at each other, air filling with something different, something nameless.

“You may not be able to save your living body, but there’s a way to save your soul from It”

-

_Show us, little one, if the blood in your veins has the same color as your ancestors_

_Let us have a taste of it_

_Let us taste the blue of your blood in your screams_

-

When he gets back to the coven, Jaehyun leaving him in favour of talking to Doyoung, Chenle’s first thought is _Jaemin_.

He finds him in the infirmary, one if his hands covered with bandages, and his heart stops. Other than his hand, Jaemin doesn’t seem to be hurt, except for the bruises Chenle can see on his face and under the collar of his shirt. They lock eyes and Jaemin’s eyes open wildly. He almost falls of the bed when he tries to get up and Chenle barely catches him before he legs collapse.

Jaemin looks at Chenle like he’s staring at a ghost, and Chenle’s heart squeezes in his chest.

“You’re alive” he says, voice raw, and Chenle nods, hiding his face on the crock of his boyfriend’s neck. They hug, tight, and Chenle can’t smell him. Clinching his teeth, he tries not to think about it. Instead, he focuses on the sensation of Jaemin’s hair between his fingers, the warmness of his breath on his skin and the grip of his hands in his waist.

“I thought they got you” Jaemin whispers, shivering “When we got there after receiving your message, we felt the hunters magic, then we saw your horse and then…”

Jaemin doesn’t finish his sentence, voice breaking, and Chenle hates it. Hates to see his lover in such a state. Chenle was gone for four days, and he can only imagine what he would have felt if the last thing he saw of the person he loved was their dead animal.

“We couldn’t find your body though” Jaemin starts again, moving back so their eyes would lock “There were no bodies but the hunters and so I thought you survived them. But It is out there too, your curse, and I was so scared Chenle, so scared It got to you before me”

Chenle shushes him by kissing him, tears pearling at the corner of his eyes. Jaemin kisses him back, desperate, and Chenle’s heart breaks. He tells Jaemin everything, how he got to the vampires, how the hunters got them by surprise and how he woke up in Jaehyun’s manor. He doesn’t talk about the wolves, as Jaehyun asked. Doesn’t talk about the memories he saw and what Jaehyun told him about his family.

Chenle loves Jaemin, but sometimes the younger scares him. There is too much desperation in him, too much powers he isn’t sure Jaemin can fully control on his own. If he knew what Chenle knew, the darkness inside of his heart would grow too strong. 

“You entered Jaehyun manor?” Jaemin asks him, once Chenle’s done speaking. Chenle nods, mouth dry for speaking so much. They went back to Jaemin’s bed and it’s a bit small for the both of them, but they make it work, Chenle half resting on Jaemin.

“Have you looked around, searched for it?”

Chenle doesn’t comprehend Jaemin’s words right away, but when he does, he jerks his head back up. Thrown back by the question, Chenle doesn’t respond. This was not the time to talk about an old book when the war for their survival had just begun. But Jaemin can read Chenle like his own thoughts, and so he sees the answer reflecting in his eyes.

“You’ve seen it” he whispers, in wonder. Chenle refuses to look at him again. He refuses to talk about it, at least right now. But Jaemin is stubborn, dangerously so, and Chenle is tired of fighting.

“What did it say?” Jaemin presses him “Do you have it with you?”

Chenle ignores his lover in favor of getting up and out of the room. Jaemin follows him right away, limping a bit. He tries to catch his arm but Chenle doesn’t let him touch him. Continues walking until he finds himself in the library. He doesn’t know why he went there, but it’s empty and better than the infirmary, where the frog was staring at them.

“Chenle” Jaemin calls out to him, a bit breathless.

Chenle turns around at the calling, eyes hard and hands turned into fists. He’s not going to fight, he decides. Not anymore. He’s been fighting for thirty years now, and he can’t keep going. Especially not against Jaemin. Chenle’s body is dying, even if he tries to ignore it. He is dying and resting in potions created to slow the process down. But there is a finality to everything, and he’s no exception.

“I saw it” he says, voice tired. Before Jaemin’s eyes finish to light up, hope growing in them, Chenle cuts it short. “There is no end to this curse, Jaemin”

Jaemin stares at him, the shadows in his brown eye making themselves seen again.

“What are you saying?” Jaemin asks.

“I’m saying that I am cursed and that there is no way for me to escape it. The demon that’s been hunting me for my entire life will get to me, sooner than later, and there is nothing that can be done to stop it”

His words resonate between them, like a scream, and Chenle doesn’t feel relieved, not one bit. He thought voicing it out loud would make it easier to bear, but it hadn’t work. It makes it harder, instead, because Jaemin is looking at him with anger now. There is darkness in his eye and no sparkles in the other, and Chenle knows that this is going to be hard, on the both of them.

“I don’t believe you” Jaemin says, teeth grinding “There is always a way to end a curse”

“There isn’t” Chenle cuts him, shaking his head “I’ve read the book, Jaemin. It’s Jaehyun’s mother’s spell book, and there is no ending where I survive the curse she brought to my family”

Jaemin shakes his head, refusing to listen. Shadows grow behind him, snakes forming at his feet, and Chenle feels desperate for him to face the truth.

“We can save my soul from the underground, but not my body” Chenle tries again, because this is still hope, he thinks. Still hope for him to escape turning into a demon himself. Chenle’s been preparing his death for most of his life. Knew it would come, one day, when he least expected it. When you live surrounded by death, it doesn’t scare you that much in the end. You just get to decide when it takes you.

Chenle found a way to die that isn’t a promise of eternal suffering and demon shifting. Chenle wants to decide when and how he’s going to die, because he is stronger than his nightmares, and he wishes Jaemin would accept it, too. So Chenle tells him everything. Talks about the source of the curse, how Jaehyun’s mother put it, and how Jaehyun found a way to separate his soul from his body before it gets swallowed by darkness.

“Will you do it?” he asks, eyes implanted in Jaemin’s own. “Will you do it Jaemin? Kill me so I can be free.”

“I won’t need to” the other boy says, hands turned into fists, determination in his eyes. Determination or desperation, Chenle isn’t sure he even knows the difference anymore. “I won’t need to, because you’re not gonna die. Not when I’m alive”

Chenle stares at the man he loves, tears slowly falling down his cheeks. He might have been naïve, but he thought that by explaining things to him, Jaemin would stop his quest. He might have been naïve to think Jaemin would listen to his wishes, but Chenle needed that naiveness, right now. He needed anything that wasn’t pain and fear, promises of a death he’s been running away from since he was a child.

Jaemin stares at him, shadows fading away, snakes disappearing under his clothes, before he closes his eyes. They stay silent for a long time, Chenle listening to Jaemin breath.

“Show it to me” Jaemin speaks, finally, eyes empty “Show it to me, and only then would I believe you”

-

Jaehyun opens his door to them a few days later. It had stopped raining right as Chenle stepped out of the coven, Jaemin right by his side, but there is still no sign of the sun when they arrive to the manor. Chenle hadn’t really looked at it, the first time, and now that he sees it with clearer eyes, he’s impressed. He’s seen the manor before, of course, but its magic is stronger now, for some reason, and even though Chenle can’t smell it, it still resonates with his own when he passes the gates.

Jaehyun watches as they climb the stairs, familiar on his shoulder, fur busing. It stares at Jaemin for a moment before it takes its leave, flying out into the trees. Jaehyun salutes them politely, though his gaze is warmer when he looks at Chenle than it is when it’s Jaemin. Chenle got an understanding of how the manor works, magic all over the place, but it still amazes him when a door appears from nowhere in the corridor they’re in, on the second floor.

Jaehyun steps in front of it, murmuring words Chenle doesn’t quite catch before the entry of what looks like an old library makes itself showed. The three of them walk inside, the smell of wood and old paper surrounding them. It saddens Chenle, not being able to smell the magic of the room, but it vibrates against his own, keeping his heart warm.

“Before I give you the book” Jaehyun says, turning to Chenle “I want to ask you about something”

Chenle glances at Jaemin, who doesn’t seem to care much, eyes rolling on the shelfs. He nods, still, because there isn’t really a place to say no. Jaehyun stares at Chenle, eyes tired.

“I want you to stay here for a time” the older witch says “I talked about it with Doyoung, and you’re safer here than in the coven”

Jaemin snaps his head towards him, eyes narrowed. “Why?” he asks, suspicious.

“I’m stronger than Doyoung” Jaehyun responds simply “And he needs to save his magic for more important things”

“More important things?” Jaemin hisses “Chenle’s safety isn’t just some game, Jaehyun. Do I have to remind you of his curse?”

It is vicious, the way he speaks those last words, and Chenle winces, pleading him with his eyes to stop it. They weren’t here to fight, despite Jaemin’s anger. Chenle is tired of fighting. Jaehyun stares at Jaemin with empty eyes before weak sparkles appear in his pupils.

“That won’t be necessary” he says, calm “My mother created the curse, and while I may not be able to revoke it, I can perfectly protect Chenle from it. Especially in my own house”

Chenle looks around him, blinking. The idea of leaving the coven feels weird, as it is the only place he’s lived in for the last thirty years. His heart belongs there, and so does his body. But Jaehyun is right. Doyoung isn’t as strong, and hunters are getting more dangerous as days pass. If him being away helps them win, by just a fine line, he’ll stay here, with Jaehyun. As long as he needs.

“I’ll stay” he voices, taking Jaemin’s hand in his. _It’s ok_ , he says to him, in his mind, and looks as his boyfriend’s eyes change. Nodding for the second time, Jaemin squeezes Chenle’s hand back. They’re in this together.

Jaehyun doesn’t waste time then, speaking foreign words again. Time seems to stop before a book appears in front of them, suspended in the air. Jaehyun takes it in hands, looking at it before handing it to Chenle. Shyly, Chenle accepts it. It weights in his hands, vibrating at his touch, and Chenle admires the runes moving on the cover.

Jaemin steps closer to him, blue eye sparkling. When Chenle opens the book, Jaehyun takes his leave in silence. Left alone, the two lovers let themselves fall on the ground, eyes fixed on the book. It opens itself, right where the spell they’re looking for rests.

Jaemin stares at the page for a long time, reading, re-reading, reading again. Chenle lets him, watches his eyes move from word to word, trying to make sense of it. This is old magic, from another time, and it took some time for Chenle to fully understand it. This is not a magic that is used anymore, at least not in their coven, too dark and malicious for them to learn about.

When Jaemin closes the book, after what feels like hours, he doesn’t look at Chenle right away. Instead, gets up, walks around for a second, before stopping in front of a shelf. His hands are turned into fists, his shoulders rigid. Chenle gets up then, hands a bit shaky, legs hurting. He goes to Jaemin and hugs him from behind, his nose in the other’s hair. They stay like this until Jaemin moves again, facing Chenle, looking at him, finally.

“I love you” he says “I love you so much, Chenle”

“And I love you right back”

Jaemin kisses him tender, lips shaking, hands heavy, and Chenle kisses back. Jaemin always venerated Chenle, ever since he first laid eyes on him, but today, as he makes love to him, ever so tenderly, the veneration he sees in his eyes is stronger than it has ever been. And Chenle isn’t quite sure he likes it.

They stay in the room for hours, until the sun settles down and night takes over, drifting between sleep and more kisses. Jaemin gets up at some point, hair a mess and Chenle watches him walk around, hand caressing the shelfs, taking out some of the books. 

“Jaemin, don’t do that” Chenle says, sitting up, ignoring the pain in his back and neck.

Jaemin briefly turns to him before going back to examining the books. He looks relaxed, but the glitch Chenle saw in his blue eye doesn’t suit quite right with him. 

“What?” Jaemin asks, shrugging “It’s not like we’re here to steal anything, are we? Looking around won’t hurt”

Chenle isn’t sure, but the temptation is strong. It’s not everyday that so much magical knowledge and history is presented to them. He’s curious too, but those are Jaehyun’s books. He probably doesn’t want them to sneak around and read things they’re not supposed to. But Jaemin glances at him, a smirk on his lips, and Chenle gives away his reticence. A couple of books won’t hurt, right?

Putting his clothes back on, he gets up slowly, not touching at his hair. Legs shaking, he walks towards the opposite shelf Jaemin’s at right now, and examine the variations of covers in front of him. Those are really old books, Chenle thinks, bindings ripped or pages turned over. Delicately, Chenle gets one book out. It is small but heavy, pages turned yellow with time.

When he opens it, he sneezes, dust too strong for him to bear. Jaemin turns at the nose, curious, and walks towards him. Hugs him from behind, chin resting on his shoulder.

“Pages are missing” Chenle says, browns frown, as he flips pages after pages “It’s weird”

“What does the book talk about?” Jaemin says, breath caressing Chenle’s cheek, making him shiver. Chenle reads more attentively, focusing on entire paragraphs at a time, trying to decipher the words. It is half erased, time doing its job has keeping secrets from them, but Chenle gets a general understand of it after some time.

“Us. Different species” he says, pointing at a more readable paragraph “It’s like, a biology book of the supernatural”

“The merge of bloods” Jeamin reads out loud “ _For species to evolve and survive, whether magical or not, evolution requires transmutation.”_ Jaemin takes a step back, starting looking around again. “What do you think it means?” he asks.

“I have no idea” Chenle answers, confused.

They stay quiet for a second before the room shifts, door opening with a squeak. They stare are it, expecting, but nothing or no one comes their way. They spare a glance before Jaemin offers his hand to Chenle.

“That’s our sign to get out” Jaemin says with a smile, and Chenle takes his hand. When they walk out the room, into the corridor, Chenle glances back. He sees the door morphing, just like the memories, disappearing somewhere it can’t be seen. As he stares at a blank wall, Chenle can’t help but think that they’ve missed something, something important, but he can’t put words on what.

-

They’re walking in the forest near Jaehyun’s manor, a couples of days later, when he comes to them. Chenle watches as Jaemin’s face changes, as he starts walking faster, putting as much distance as he can between him and the older witch. Chenle stays at his path, lets Jaehyun join him on his walk.

His back and legs are still hurting, but the potion Jaehyun gave him is helping with the pain, allowing him to walk a bit better. They don’t talk, content in listening as the forest breathes, but there’s a question burning at the tip of Chenle’s mouth. A question he isn’t sure he has the right to ask. He stops on his tracks, stretching his hand out, touching the cork of the tree next to him.

Jaehyun looks at him, knowing, and Chenle gathers his courage.

“Did it give you your heart back?” he asks, voice low. The wind caresses his face, plays with his hair before it goes away, playing with the leaves. His question is vague, weighing a lot, more than he might deserve to express, but he needs to know.

“No” Jaehyun answers, voice neutral. “The forest hid it when it saved me”

Chenle’s eyes fall on the older witch, and see nothing but kindness underneath the blank expression Jaehyun wears all the time. Then they fall on his chest, where a heart is supposed to be but isn’t, stolen forever. Chenle wants to say sorry, again. Wants to say sorry for something he didn’t do but knows still affect Jaehyun to this day. Chenle can’t even imagine living without his heart. Can’t imagine not hearing it beat, or feel it.

Jaehyun had to leave without it for centuries, and Chenle hates the idea of it. There is so much a heart can do for you, Chenle realises. A heart is a witch’s source of power, where they go to find themselves and the spells they need. A heart is used to mark ruins on your body, speaking a language only the ink can comprehend. Chenle thinks of his own ruins, on his arms and chest. One in particular, in the middle of his stomach.

Chenle thinks of the ruin he drew for Jaemin and him, a few years back, when his love for the younger was at its pick. He knows the spell wouldn’t have been as powerful if his heart hadn’t been there, speaking to him.

“Have you ever bonded? With anyone?” he asks again.

He dares ask that question because Jaehyun is old and wise, has seen many more things than Chenle. Jaehyun might have answers Chenle never dreamed of even earing. But what Jaehyun has, most importantly, is understanding. If Chenle tells him this one thing, the thing he’s been keeping in the darkness of his heart for months now, maybe he’ll find a slice of the peace he’s been looking for.

“I have” Jaehyun answers, and Chenle is relieved, for a quick second. Not every witch has a bond, and talking to one that has is easier. Because they get you. Chenle is looking at Jaemin, far down the forest, playing with a squirrel, and there’s an ugly feeling in his chest.

“Me too” he says, smile sad, eyes full of restrained tears. “And I think it was my biggest mistake”

-

Hunters kill three witches in the following days, and Chenle cries the loss of his friends, hating himself for not being able to fight with them.

-

Jaemin wakes Chenle in the middle of the night, a week later. Confused, Chenle opposes little resistance as Jaemin guides him out of the manor and into the woods. It is raining, still, and Chenle’s skin shivers at the cold. It is dark outside, darker than it supposed to be for a full moon. They walk for some time, it seems, but maybe it’s just Chenle tiredness making him disoriented. His legs hurt and he needs Jaemin’s help more than once, in order not to fall over.

They end up in a little clearing. Under the rain and constant darkness, it’s hard to distinguish anything, but Chenle sees the candles, flames flying around. Chenle blinks, looks at Jaemin who refuses to look at him back.

“Jaemin, what is this?” Chenle asks him, stopping on his tracks, Jaemin’s hand falling from his. It is only then that Jaemin turns over to him. Chenle can’t see his eyes, but he’s sure to feel the shadows at his feet, snakes undulating around.

“You’ll see” is all Jaemin says before taking his hand again. They walk pass the candles, right in the middle of the circle they’re forming, and Chenle’s heart does something weird. It is not normal for them to be in the middle of the forest, at night, surrounded by candles. This can only mean a few things, and Chenle isn’t sure he likes any of the possibilities that come to his mind.

“Why are we in a circle?” He asks, suspicious, taking a step back. But Jaemin looks at him in the eyes then. His blue eye overflows with sparkles, dancing crazily, and Chenle can’t move, suddenly, as if he was paralyzed.

“I’ve read it from Jaehyun’s mother’s book” Jaemin says, careful, eyes not leaving him.

Chenle swallows, eyes blinking frantically, from both fear and the rain in his eyes.

“This book is filled with dark magic Jaemin, what are you doing?”

“There is no dark magic!” Jaemin shouts, losing the neutral expression on his face. Closing his eyes, he takes a deep breath, like he’s trying to take control of himself back “Only magic that we’re too afraid to use is called dark” he says, calmer.

Chenle stares at him with wide eyes, shaking his head. Fear slowly grows in the back of his throat, heart palpitating. He wants out of this, wants to go back to the manor and under the safety of the sheets. But when he tries to move, his feet don’t listen to him. Looking down, he sees Jaemin’s snakes wrapped around his ankles, giving him the impression of the earth swallowing him. Frantic, he looks back up at Jaemin, lips shaking.

“Jeamin…” he says, but his voice gets stuck in his throat. Jaemin turns away from him, and Chenle calls out to him again, louder. The younger doesn’t listen, walks out the circle and gets on his knees. There is something on his laps, like a doll, and Chenle feels like throwing up when he succeeds on seeing a bunch of white hair on its head. _His_ hair. Jaemin’s lips starts moving, his eyes closed, and Chenle falls on the ground.

“Stop this!” he shouts “Jaemin please, stop it!”

Chenle doesn’t know what’s happening and he’s scared. The shadows grow, making their way up his waist and Chenle breaks, tears falling down his cheeks. Looking around, he calls for help. Murmurs his own words, his own spells, but they get lost in the rain, vanished away. Turning back to Jaemin, Chenle bites at his lips.

“I won’t let you do this, whatever is it” he says to him, even though he knows it’s useless. But his voice is all he has left, at that moment, and he’s determined to use it. Until the end. Jaemin opens his eyes, staring at him with pleading eyes, but Chenle doesn’t care about his pleading anymore. He wants to be free from this circle, from Jaemin’s snakes, from his own body.

“Chenle, love, please-“ Jaemin starts, but Chenle doesn’t listen.

“I won’t let you do it!” he screams, hands gripping the grass, nails scratching the mud. “Never, never, never!”

Chenle doesn’t know what all of this is about, doesn’t know what Jaemin intends to do with him, but it can’t be good. So he’ll fight against it, whatever it takes him. The rain gets stronger, wind screaming alongside Chenle. Jaemin gets up, almost runs to him before grabbing his chin in one hand, eyes overcome with shadows.

“Shut up!” he orders him, and Chenle feels his mouth being sealed. Panicking, he moves his hands to his face, where his lips are supposed to be but aren’t. Crying harder, he looks at Jaemin with pure horror in his eyes, watching as the younger walks out of the circle again. Chenle tries to scream, but he can’t, voice stuck in his throat, unable to get out. The shadows grow again, snakes now on his chest, and Chenle can’t do anything but stand there, immobile.

Jaemin has started chanting again, in a language Chenle doesn’t understand, and slowly, one snake lifts itself from Chenle’s chest. Its eyes are a deep red, moving in waves. Before Chenle can even predict it, the snake opens its mouth, fangs all out, and sink into his chest, where his heart is.

Chenle’s never felt pain so strong before. It hurts so much it stops him from breathing for a couple of seconds, eyes rolling at the back of his head. His body falls over, convulsing, and he can’t see anything else but red. Red everywhere, dancing in his pupils. Chenle doesn’t know how long he stays on the ground, shaking as the snake swallows him. It feels like being ripped apart, skinned alive, burned, all at once.

It never stops until it does. When Chenle recovers his vision, blurry, Jaemin is kneeling next to him, curved knife in hands. Chenle doesn’t feel anything anymore, like his mind resigned, abandoning him to his fate. Jaemin takes his wrist, delicate, eyes unreadable. Chenle doesn’t look away when Jaemin cuts his skin, blood dripping down his arms, into the crock of his elbow, and Jaemin drinks it directly out of the cut.

Jaemin drinks his blood in long and strong gulps, tears slowly falling down his cheeks. When he steps away, mouth and chin covered in blue blood, Chenle doesn’t stop looking at him. Licking his lips, Jaemin falls on the ground next to him, caresses his hair out of his face, and smiles. Pushes himself into Chenle’s space, squeezing their bodies together.

“I can’t lose you” Jaemin breathes in his ears, Adam’s Apple going up and down against Chenle’s cheek, uncomfortable.

And as Chenle falls into darkness, eyes heavy and chest burning, he hears Jaemin’s words once more, whispering, chanting, demanding.

“You and I, we’re one”

-

_My world ends where yours begin, my love._

_My world does not exist if it does not have you in it._

_My servitude is yours, love, now and for the rest of time._

-

Chenle doesn’t feel different when he wakes up. He feels rested, though, for the first time in weeks, and it’s a weird feeling. He is alone on the bed, curtains closed and sheets warm. Jaemin is sitting by the window, a book in hands. When he ears Chenle getting up, he stands rapidly, a smile on his face. But Chenle doesn’t look at him, jerks away from him when he tries to touch him.

Jaemin’s smile flattens at that, but he doesn’t lose face. Sits at the end of the bed, eyes full of hope. Chenle is sick of it.

“What have you done to me?” he asks, eyes fixed on the ground. He refuses to look at his boyfriend, refuses to see his eyes, because he knows they’ll only take control of him again.

“I bonded us” Jaemin smiles, hands coming Chenle’s way for the second time. Chenle jerks away again, shaking his head.

“You can’t be bonded twice Jaemin”

“This is another kind of bonding” Jaemin cuts him, voice shaking.

Chenle feels bill go up his throat. Shaking his head again, he gets up. He feels like suffocating, suddenly.

“Dark magic, Jaemin. You used dark magic on me”. Just saying the words makes him gag and he quickly steps away, out of the room and into the empty corridor. He walks his way to the front door, tripping on his own feet but not paying attention to it. He needs air, he needs out, he needs Jaemin away from him.

“Chenle” he hears the younger call out to him “Chenle please listen to me”

Chenle doesn’t listen to Jaemin. Opens the front door, ignoring the sweat falling down his forehead. Jaehyun’s familiar is sleeping at the end of the stairs, but it lifts its head when it hears Chenle approaching. Lazily, it stretches itself before landing his yellow eyes on Chenle. Taking deep breath, Chenle closes his eyes, trying to get the control of his emotions back. He never thought things would turn out like this. Never would he have thought Jaemin would fall so low, not for him.

“Chenle, don’t be like this” Jaemin says behind him.

“Don’t be like this?” Chenle repeats, turning over, eyes dark, red sparkles dancing in them. “You used dark magic on _me_ , Jaemin!” he shouts. “You used it even when I asked you not to. You didn’t listen!”

“You’re just afraid of it!” Jaemin shouts right back, shadows back in his eyes “You’re afraid of living, you’re afraid of being with me!”

“Enough!”

Jaehyun’s voice resonates between them. Chenle barely glances at him, too angry to look at anything else but Jaemin. Jaehyun must know what Jaemin did to him, Chenle thinks then. Jaehyun would tell him the truth. Taking a deep breath, he turns his attention to the older witch, watching him getting down the stairs.

“Please tell me what he did to me, Jaehyun” he pleads, eyes frantic “I need to know”

Jaehyun looks at him with sad eyes, almost pitting him, and Chenle can’t bear it. Doesn’t want any pity in people’s eyes. Jaehyun doesn’t say a word before he stands between the two lovers, eyes filled with blue sparkles.

“He swallowed your soul” Jaehyun says, neutral. It feels like Chenle’s world turns upside-down in seconds, his head burning, vision dizzy. Looking at the ground, then Jaehyun and Jaemin, Chenle can’t speak. Can’t believe that this is happening. What is happening?

“This can’t be” he whispers, shaking his head. “Jaemin, you didn’t, right?”

There are tears in Jaemin’s eyes, but also anger, and Chenle doesn’t recognise the boy he fell in love with.

“I told you” Jaemin says, voice low “That I couldn’t lose you. With your soul inside of me, we’re never going to be apart. We’ll be together until the very end”

For the first time since they’ve met, Jaemin makes Chenle sick. Shaking his head, Chenle takes a step back, nearly falls on the ground.

“You told me to take your soul” Jaemin reminds him, voice finally shaking, breaking.

“That didn’t mean I gave you permission to keep it to yourself” Chenle says back “My soul is not yours to have! You had no rights to do what you did!”

“I saved you!”

“You saved yourself from heartbreak!”

Wind chants in Chenle’s ears, but he doesn’t listen to it. Can’t even understand it anymore. Chenle isn’t his own, and he feels disgusting, used, betrayed. He can’t stand being in the same space as Jaemin, can’t even bear the idea of looking at him. He walks always, into the forest, Jaehyun’s familiar at his feet.

“Chenle, wait!” he hears Jaemin say, but he doesn’t look back, hopes that Jaehyun would keep him from following him, just this once. Chenle needs time to swallow everything, needs time to understand why Jaemin would do that without talking to him about it first. Chenle needs time to face the reality that maybe, just maybe, the boy he fell in love with doesn’t exist anymore, hidden too deeply by his shadows.

-

Two vampires die that night, and Chenle listens as the werewolves hiding in Jaehyun’s forest sing for better times to come.

-

Hunters get them in a little shop, in the middle of a quiet day.

Rain has stopped, but dark clouds still block the sun from coming out. Chenle is cold, a little dizzy, but he’s stubborn. Refuses to stay near Jaemin, where he feels the best, because being next to him reminds him of what he did to him, and he can’t stand it. Jaehyun is standing to his right, attentive to his surroundings. There isn’t a lot of people here, as it’s the middle of the day, but Jaehyun never stops looking.

Chenle isn’t worried. Only old ladies and mothers are here right now, showing no direct threats to them. They’re walking slowly, putting food in their trolley when Chenle sees Jaemin, at the end of the aisle. Averting his eyes, he turns over, changing direction. Jaehyun looks at him with a question in his eyes but Chenle just shrugs.

There’s an old woman staring at him, a few meters away, and she reminds him of the lady that lived down his street, thirty years ago. Shaking his head, he walks pass her rapidly. As he steps out of the aisle into another one, he hears screaming. He doesn’t pay it much thoughts, but when it happens again, Chenle senses that something is wrong.

Looking around, he just has the time to see the knife coming his way before crashing into the ground. Rolling over, he murmurs a spell, letting it roll on his tongue. Someone groans behind him, and when Chenle turns around, he sees a woman fall on the ground, her face pale, one of her hand got in fire. Blinking, Chenle doesn’t lose time. Gets up on his feet before chanting again, his eyes full of red sparkles.

The woman looks at him, her teeth out in a silence growl before her entire body turns into flame. She doesn’t scream, but Chenle sees her last breath fly out of the fire, into the ceiling. Swallowing, Chenle starts running, looking for Jaehyun. He finds him kneeling on the ground, blood dripping from his forehead, another woman dead at his feet. When they lock eyes, something in the older’s eyes changes. Jaemin stands behind him, breath erratic, a cut on his throat, blood rapidly coagulating. They nod to each other, ready to abandon their food in order to escape this place.

But before they can move, everything explodes. Particles of food fly around, the smell of burned flesh and smoke suffocating. Chenle’s hears sings for a time, tears falling down his face. Knocked out, Chenle finds it hard to get back on his feet. Blinking the tears away, he sees Jaehyun standing in the middle of the smoke, shadows surrounding him. With the blood on his face, he looks like a nightmare, the ones that would hunt Chenle when he was a child.

Two other women are standing in front of him, weapons out and runes shinning. For the first time, Chenle hears Jaehyun growls, a sound out of the earth, coming out of the darkness, and Chenle has a hard time not lowering himself down even more. Jaehyun is majestic, powerful, deadly. From the shadows gets out a demon, face green and body slimy with something Chenle can’t name. He isn’t safe here, Chenle realises, when the demon starts walking towards the women. He’s not safe, needs to find out a way out of here before he gets kill.

Crawling away, he finds himself out of the aisle, breath a bit lighter. Standing up on weak legs, Chenle looks around. Jaemin is nowhere to be seen, and even if he doesn’t wan to, he worries. Where could he be? Was he hurt? Did the hunters get him first?

“Chenle!” he hears from his left. Jaemin is limping towards him, one foot tuned at a weird angle.

Exhaling a breath he didn’t know he was holding, Chenle starts walking towards him. What he doesn’t expecting, though, is for an old lady to appear in front of him. That same lady who was staring at him a few moment ago. Frowning, Chenle barely has time to stop himself before the woman jumps on him.

That’s when he sees It. Mouth wide open, cutting half Its face. While in the air, the old lady turns into Chenle’s nightmare, long arms falling down a slender body, legs never ending. Chenle screams, legs giving up, and It falls on him, brutally.

Looking at the gaping mouth above him, eyes translucid, Chenle knows that this is the end. And strangely, he doesn’t want to fight it. Chenle is tired of running for his life. He’s so, so, so tired. Is he giving up? Maybe. But it doesn’t feel bad, not really. Because he’s been looking over his shoulders for so long, having his destiny finally facing him feels like finally, he can rest.

“Chenle, fight it!” he hears Jaemin scream.

It is not appealing, resisting. Not anymore. Not when it is inevitable. So Chenle closes his eyes, lets his head fall against the cold tilling, and opens his heart to his fate.

It is time for him to die.

-

_You’ve showed us, little one, that you were just as blue_

_You gave us what we were here for_

_You freed us from this earth and feed us the blood we desperately needed_

-

The rain has stopped today, and the sun is shyly picking through the dark clouds.

Jaemin walks out of his class, nonchalant, ignoring the stares of the other witches. He doesn’t look at anyone on his way to his room, gait light. He doesn’t even stop to salute Doyoung, who’s looking at him with sad eyes from his office door. Jaemin ignores the world around him until he gets to his room. It is silence except for the birds outside, and when he closes his window, he watches as Felix and Irene undo the barrier around the coven.

He stares at them for a minute, heart calm, before he turns around, walking to his bathroom. It will be strange to pass the gates knowing the spell that kept Chenle safe isn’t there anymore. But they are right to get read of it. Chenle doesn’t need it anymore.

Once in the bathroom, Jaemin strips off his clothes before lifting his eyes. He looks at himself in the mirror, and smiles. Chenle doesn’t smile back, but he’s _here_. Withing him, around him, like he’s supposed to be.

Chenle will be his to keep and protect, now and forever. As one.

-

_The word is ending_

_Join and complete us_

_At the fall_

_To transcendence, to transcendence, to transcendence you go_

**Author's Note:**

> i'm not sure the tagging is appropriate, but Major Character Death, maybe? Because Chenle's death is mentioned, but 🌟resurrection🌟
> 
> hit me up : @__babybird_


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